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On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:28:04 -0400, Richard Wiggins <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >My guess is there is zero difference between the use of technology by MSU >students and the average college student at any university. You may be right, but if nobody actually studies it, there's no way to know. As a researcher, it's my job to figure out whether you're correct or not, and what the implications of that are (one way or the other). Many of the questions that we asked are directly tied to MSU (e.g., satisfaction with MSU's web offerings) or are intended to inform projects here (e.g., most important features for m.msu.edu), so having data from the MSU community is imperative. When trying to determine the amount of resources to devote to developing a website or feature, it's very important to have data from your own users. >I always >considered the media surveys of "the most wired campus" as nonsense. (There >was a time when Dartmouth was arguably the most wired and wireless campus, >but they were small in size and huge in investment. Early university >adopters who thought it was important to win surveys spent huge dollars >building out wired and wireless networks, or lying about coverage.) Our survey doesn't attempt to compare MSU with other institutions. We are trying to better understand the MSU community as well as the general landscape of higher education, not determine the "most wired campus" or anything like that. >The whole exercise is useless. You might as well ask how many students had >cars in 1921 or cell phones in 1997. It has nothing to do with the >university. I think you'll find that virtually every researcher, decision-maker, and web developer at MSU (as well as those at other institutions) strongly disagrees with you. The university expends a considerable amount of money on IT (otherwise most of the people on this mailing list wouldn't have a job), and understanding the needs of the campus is critical to ensuring that resources are properly deployed. >/rich Rich, are you currently an employee or student at MSU? You aren't listed in the directory. -- Graham L. Pierce Usability/Accessibility Research and Consulting University Outreach and Engagement Michigan State University 95 Kellogg Center East Lansing, MI 48824-1022 Phone: (517) 884-0364 Email: [log in to unmask]